A Shiba Inu Whale has moved 499.6 billion SHIB worth 4.24 million USD to the Hotbit crypto exchange.

After seven and a half months of laying dormant, the whale woke up to clear out SHIB it bought at a higher price a year ago. But why choose to send funds to a defunct exchange?

Shiba Inu Whale Exits Position

Twitter user Spot on Chain alerted people to the awakening giant on Friday, noting that they were an early adopter of Shiba Inu.

When the wallet address in question was first created in April 2021, SHIB was trading at a price of less than 0.000002 USD.  

Since then, it is estimated that the recently active wallet address has raked in over 70 million USD in profits from trading SHIB. Those gains were mostly made during a surge in the value of the token in October 2021.

However, the memecoin has lost more than three-quarters of its value since its all-time high.

After trading at close to 0.00007 USD in October 2021, today, Shiba Inu is worth just 0.00000857 USD. 

And while the cryptocurrency rallied by as much as 7% earlier this week, the decision of one whale to move their assets from cold storage onto a crypto exchange suggests they may be preparing to cut their losses.

Questions Hang Over Hotbit Exit

One perplexing aspect of Friday’s movement is the fact that the Hotbit cryptocurrency exchange has now ceased operations. After all, why send funds to a failed platform?

Upon announcing that it would be shutting up shop for good on Tuesday, Hotbit stated that customers would have until June 21 to withdraw their assets.

However, many users have reported difficulties in doing so. Others have claimed that the exchange has changed the value of their cryptocurrencies.

Hotbit said it was shutting down due to deteriorating operating conditions and declining cash flow. In a statement, it said:

“The Hotbit team believes that centralized exchanges (CEX) are becoming increasingly cumbersome, with highly complex and interconnected businesses that are difficult to comply with, whether for compliance or decentralization and are unlikely to meet long-term trends.”